Stroke happens to 62,000 people each year in Canada.2 Although most people survive their stroke, the brain damage that occurs can lead to problems with movement, vision, communication, swallowing, mood and thinking. Members of our research team were involved in the development of a new treatment to help stroke survivors. The treatment is called Take Charge and was tested in two previous studies in 572 people.7,8 It involves a talking therapy approach where a stroke survivor works with a facilitator face-to-face over a couple of meetings. The sessions are designed to help stroke survivors to re-establish their sense of self, purpose, and autonomy. The two past studies showed that Take Charge was helpful in improving stroke survivors’ independence, social participation, and quality of life.

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, many rehabilitation services have been forced to move online and take a telehealth approach. While a telehealth approach may not always be ideal, it is one way for experts in stroke care to reach stroke survivors who live outside of centers with significant stroke expertise. Improving the care we provide in underserved regions of the country is important to help the health of Canadians. We are proposing a new study, working closely with the researchers who ran the previous Take Charge studies. We will test a telehealth version of Take Charge in southern Alberta. We want to determine if the treatment can be delivered using telehealth. We plan for facilitators to meet online with stroke survivors between 4-16 weeks after stroke. Our facilitators will deliver either two Tele-Take Charge Treatment sessions or a stroke education session. We are most interested in whether delivering Tele-Take Charge is feasible. If successful, the results of this study will allow us to plan for a larger international study using the Tele-Take Charge.